In a world where honesty has become an afterthought, and deception, fueled by money, prevails in the hierarchies of our government “of, by and for the people,” I found it downright refreshing to read Bret Bielema’s recent comment about the value of truth.

The Razorback head football coach was speaking about his players and recruits when quoted this way: “One thing that costs nothing that kids really like is the truth. In today’s world people get lied to so much, and it gets disregarded as ‘Well, that’s the way people do things.’ I don’t buy into that line of thinking.”

Considering the immense damage continually inflicted by lies, the coach scored big by choosing honesty over deception. Seems it’s become not only accepted but downright fashionable to consider falsehoods as a new normal across society.

Yet it wasn’t that long ago in America that spiritual traits such as character, honesty and integrity were regularly included as part of family discussions. I sure recall having such expectations drilled into my head as a child.

Of course, that was decades ago before our society devolved to the point of embracing the pervasive lies that Bielema’s talking about. Under our new “evolved” form of existence together, we’ve come to believe more in the version of co-existence presented by Niccolò Machiavelli in his early 1500s work, The Prince, to believe people are justified in using any means, including lies, to achieve their goals.

In other words, truth and honesty be damned as long as you get what you want.

Clearly Bielema touched a personal nerve when he spoke of how truth costs us nothing tangible while remaining valuable at least among some in today’s society. While honesty and integrity may seem strangely outdated to the slicker types among us, the inescapable fact remains that a person is only as credible and respected as his word. Bielema knows if the players he recruits can’t depend on his word, he also immediately loses any respect and trust they place in him.

There was a time not that long ago in our state and every other that a person’s word was as good as his bond. That faded with the wider realization that immediate personal gratification could be easily had through falsehoods. Well, that was true at least once or twice before others caught on. Then came the proliferation of civil lawsuits, Wall Street greed and deception, even presidents who openly lied for personal and political advantage and, well, you name it. Hey, if they lied to achieve their objectives, why can’t you and I?

And so here we are today in this nation of pervasive deceptions that we’ve sadly accepted because, as Bielema correctly states, “Well, that’s the way people do things.”

Since setting off far down this dark and twisted path of accepted deceptions, I’m not sure how we find our way back to the high road. This unraveling of our nation’s fabric of truth and trust in one another today extends to the absurd point where society proclaims prayer in schools as offensive while celebrating Miley Cyrus publicly twerking her half-naked self before millions.

It’s sobering to even imagine the damage we do to our deeper inner selves when we knowingly violate what we know to be true.

I say “we” because I don’t exclude myself. Have I been less than truthful on any number of occasions in my own life? Yes. Have I acted over the years in ways that most would consider dishonorable or dishonest? It’s always easiest to defer to the lowest forms of behavior without considering the enduring consequences.

Yet we also can choose honesty over deception. The coach’s choice ought to make all adults stop and examine their own decisions today because “the way people do things” can’t possibly justify lies and the dishonor and harm they inevitably cause.Not ‘prostitutes’

I’ve known (and liked) the Rev. Lowell Grisham, rector of Fayetteville’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, for many years. He lately reached out to explain how his awareness was lifted through counseling the victims of human trafficking.

Grisham said he’s visited with young women who as minors had been sold, traded for drugs and sexually abused (still are being), yet are unfairly characterized. “What’s important is that they not be called prostitutes in newspapers-not when they are children,” Grisham said. “The Legislature has passed a law that defines the crime of human trafficking and says a victim of trafficking is not guilty of prostitution, particularly minors.”

He cites a recent story about a sheriff’s deputy sentenced to a mere 45 months for taking a 17-year-old trafficking victim across a state line. “But the reporter called her a ‘17-year-old prostitute,’ which presents an unfair and inaccurate view.”

Fair enough. So what say let’s all tell things as they are now that all of our consciousness levels hopefully have been lifted by this truthful point. These females too often are the victims of evil male adults who trap and use them for their own gain, not the typical “working girls.”

After all, one of these child victims could be your daughter or mine.

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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Editorial, Pages 17 on 02/08/2014